SWO ends CPC 6-0; Dixon awaits pairings

By Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer

Published: Saturday, May 4, 2013 at 11:00 AM.

“I think as long as we play together we can compete with any 1-A team in the state,” she said.

Meanwhile, Dixon (8-6-4, 3-2-1), which played without injured midfielders Allyna Ankney (toe) and Brianna Pollock (knee), ended second in the CPC and looks to garner a wild-card spot. The pairings will be announced Monday.

“With the selection process, you’re never 100 percent sure,” said Dixon coach Josh King, whose team lost 1-0 at Southwest on March 27. “I feel we deserve a spot and I feel like if we get a spot then we will put on a good run. My girls deserve it in my opinion.”

The game’s lone goal came with 25:38 left in the first half on McCurry’s penalty kick. While McCurry scored on two PKs in a game against East Carteret earlier this season, the sophomore said she was nervous taking this big shot.

“I’m always nervous because anything can go wrong and all the pressure is on you,” McCurry said. “But it’s good to know that he (Sweeney) has the confidence that I can get the ball in the net, and I know my team has confidence in me.”

McCurry took the PK after sophomore Alex Crow drew a foul inside the 18-yard line after she used her speed to make a run going forward toward the ball.

“Once she gets into space, Alex is hard to catch,” Sweeney said. “I really felt on that play that what you saw was really good interplay between our forwards, Alex and Taylor (Marley), working together to spring her (Crow) into some space.”

DIXON — With his Southwest girls’ soccer team having already clinched the Coastal Plains 1-A Conference title and the league’s only automatic playoff berth, coach John Sweeney was looking for one thing in particular in the regular-season finale against Dixon on Friday.

“We wanted to do a better job of possessing the ball,” Sweeney said after the Stallions’ 1-0 win over the Bulldogs. “The conditions tonight and pressure from Dixon made it very difficult, but I think given those two factors, the girls did very well.”

Thanks to a first-half penalty goal by Amanda McCurry, Southwest did well enough on a chilly and windy evening to emerge victorious against short-handed Dixon and finish conference play undefeated.

The Stallions (8-8-2, 6-0) will open defense of their NCHSAA 1-A title Tuesday or Wednesday in the first round. Southwest has been to the state final the last three years, also winning it all in 2010.

The Stallions, who played a tough nonconference schedule, believe they can make another deep postseason run.

“I’ve always said that if you are the top five or six teams in the state, then it’s anybody’s game,” Sweeney said. “I do believe, despite our record and (not being ranked), that we are one of the top five or six teams in the state.”

McCurry agreed that the Stallions can go far.

“I think as long as we play together we can compete with any 1-A team in the state,” she said.

Meanwhile, Dixon (8-6-4, 3-2-1), which played without injured midfielders Allyna Ankney (toe) and Brianna Pollock (knee), ended second in the CPC and looks to garner a wild-card spot. The pairings will be announced Monday.

“With the selection process, you’re never 100 percent sure,” said Dixon coach Josh King, whose team lost 1-0 at Southwest on March 27. “I feel we deserve a spot and I feel like if we get a spot then we will put on a good run. My girls deserve it in my opinion.”

The game’s lone goal came with 25:38 left in the first half on McCurry’s penalty kick. While McCurry scored on two PKs in a game against East Carteret earlier this season, the sophomore said she was nervous taking this big shot.

“I’m always nervous because anything can go wrong and all the pressure is on you,” McCurry said. “But it’s good to know that he (Sweeney) has the confidence that I can get the ball in the net, and I know my team has confidence in me.”

McCurry took the PK after sophomore Alex Crow drew a foul inside the 18-yard line after she used her speed to make a run going forward toward the ball.

“Once she gets into space, Alex is hard to catch,” Sweeney said. “I really felt on that play that what you saw was really good interplay between our forwards, Alex and Taylor (Marley), working together to spring her (Crow) into some space.”

Down 1-0, the Bulldogs pushed hard for a goal, only to come up short.

Dixon appeared to have tied the game with about six minutes left when Carly Rochelle lofted a 30-yard shot from the left corner past Southwest goalkeeper Erika Ware, who left the net to run toward the ball.

The ball seemed headed toward the net, but it suddenly veered to the right, dancing along the goalline before it went out of play.

“She hustled for the ball on the sideline, took it away from a defender, the keeper came out real hard on the edge and Carly put a great strike on the ball,” King said. “From my angle it was in, but it just curled right around the goal. I really thought it was in and I look up and it’s rolling down the track on the back side. That was a little heartbreaking.”

In the end, Southwest’s defense had enough to hold back Dixon. Ware ended with three saves while Dixon’s Miranda Davis made four saves.

“We knew it (a Dixon push) was coming, especially in the second half, and that they were going to give it their all,” Southwest senior defender Faeth Wigfall said. “We had to give it our all a little bit more.

The Stallions’ defense is experienced and has been key this season.

“Really, we just have to work together,” Wigfall said. “We know where the ball is and how to be a step ahead and read it.”

While the Stallions managed just one goal, Southwest helped its cause by playing well on the attack in the first half. The Stallions didn’t always execute, but passed the ball with a purpose and made decent runs at the goal.

“I’m really pleased with how we’ve been moving the ball lately,” Sweeney said. “It’s something we’ve struggled with for a lot of the year, but things have started clicking the last couple of weeks for us.”

And although McCurry would have liked for the Stallions to score again, she will take the victory.

“It’s disappointing that we can’t win off more than a penalty kick, but a win is a win, no matter what,” she said.